I just arrived back from the 2016 European duathlon championship qualification race in Grafham water and what a day it was.It was a 5k run followed by a 20k bike and another 5k run. To qualify I had to finish in the top 4 of my age group which is under 20's.

So the day started at 5am in order to get to St Neots for 7:30 which we achieved and feeling quite relaxed I had a wonder around the transition area, had a chat to Kiera and was generally being quite leisurely until I only had half an hour to warm-up and set up my transition. So with a bit of a rush I got ready just in time and the air horn sounded. Game on.

The run was quite hilly but still fast and I came back with the first 5k done in 17:07, Transition was smooth despite forgetting where my bike was and I was feeling good..ish. 1 minute into the bike I was stopped at a junction by queue of cars, meaning I had to unclip and wait and every second in a race feels like an hour so this felt like a lifetime! But anyway I carried on and felt I had a good rhythm going but just before entering transition I was caught by a 15+ groupetto which meant it was all down to the final run. I started hard overtaking all of the people I was with on the bike, Then I had some clean air and just put in as much distance as I could, whilst pushing all the way. Finishing with a massive grimace I had done all I could do. With the second run in 17:52.

I came in 1st in my age group and 5th overall. I did this course 8 weeks ago before being coached by Perry and I knocked 4 minutes off my overall time coming in at 01:08:10. Kiera similarly knocked about 8 minutes off, So the training camp clearly made a difference, well done.This time next year we will be jetting off to somewhere in Europe to compete for GB in the duathlon championships, an extremely exciting thought but still a long way away.